“It was revealed in a patent filing on Thursday that Apple is exploring the use of mechanical fans in portable devices, like the iPhone and iPad, to dissipate the heat made by increasingly powerful CPUs,” Mikey Campbell reports for AppleInsider.

“The invention discovered by AppleInsider is called ‘Cooling system for mobile electronic devices,’ and basically outlines a platform that uses a motor to drive two parts, a fan and an alert device,” Campbell reports. “Cooling is taken care of by the fan unit, which is situated in a cavity within the device. Air is pulled in either by a dedicated input port, or through an existing structural component like the Lightning connector plug or earphone jack. Exhaust is pushed out of the device via a similar hole in the chassis. ”

Campbell reports, “It is unclear if Apple plans to use the invention in an upcoming iDevice, but it seems doubtful that such additional components can reasonably fit within the iPhone, which becomes increasingly thin with each design evolution. ”

Read more, and see Apple’s patent application illustrations, in the full article here.